Belladonna House
A Medical Prodigy Agility: d6, Smarts: d10, Spirit: d8, Strength: d4 , Vigour: d6, Skills: Fighting: d4, Guts: d6, Healing: d10, Investigation: d4, Knowledge (Rippertech): d10, Knowledge (Psychology): d8, Knowledge (Chemistry): d6, Knowledge (Biology): d4, Notice: d6, Persuasion: d6, Stealth: d4 Parry: 4, Toughness: 4, Pace: 6,' Charisma': -2, Reason: 0, Status: 0, XP: 40 Edges: Accomplished Surgeon, Alienist, Arcane Chemist, Healer, Connections (Press), Personal Library, Scholar (Rippertech and Psychology) Starting Hindrances: Outsider, Quirk (Curses in Spanish), Nightmares, Small. '''Languages: '''English, Spanish, Cantonese, Urdu, Latin. Character Routine Time Spent in Southend: In an average week Belladonna goes to Church every Sunday Morning, Holds a free surgery for those in need on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, attends a woman's sewing circle on Wednesday afternoons and spends some time at the weekends collecting insects with Garvin and Reverend Steele. Any time not taken up by these regular 'social' activities is taken up with research, experimenting, caring for the Rippers who have become injured (mostly Rig) and taking part in the various adventures and investigations that invariably serve to interrupt her otherwise peaceful life. Interactions with Local People: The free surgery that Belladonna provides has garnered her a good deal of good will amongst the less well off amongst Southend's inhabitants. It is well known that even outside of her 'normal' surgery hours she is willing to help as long as she is available, and can usually be contacted at Archway House. The more philanthropic members of the upper classes see her work as both selfless and Godly, and in their own interests and it may save them from having sick servants or having to pay for medical dues. Others, however, see the offering of free medical care as giving something to those who do not deserve it. The local practitioner, Doctor Riddell, has a 'gentelmans agreement' with Belladonna that only those who could not afford treatment outside of the free surgery go to her, and while he is not keen on the idea of female physicians, he at least respects her abilities and does, from time to time, send patients to her surgery when it is appropriate. Collection of Curiosities: Belladonna has a collection of items of varied provenance that speak to her on some level, they are described further here Character History Belladonna House was delivered into this world by her illegitimate father, Dr Gregory House. She never knew her mother (Rosa, Dr House’s Spanish housekeeper) who died in childbirth. She lived an unusual childhood, raised by her grandmother and father until the age of ten when her grandmother died of consumption, from that point the only female figures in her life were a chain of housekeepers from whom she learnt several languages. Belladonna always loved to read, and to watch her father work, and as she showed an unusual aptitude her father took her on as his nurse as soon as she was of age, and before long she was as much a part of his practice as his stethoscope! This, however, was not enough for Belladonna. Her dream was to go to medical school. At the age of 18 she heard word of a relatively new establishment, "The London School of Medicine for Women", and of course she saw this as her chance to enter herself into the medical profession. Belladonna spent the next three years acting as nurse for her father and trying to convince him that she was good enough to attend the School of Medicine. On her twenty-first birthday he gave her card, inside the message simply read "Let's see if you are as good as you think you are". Accompanying the card in the envelope were the appropriate registration papers along with a promissory note to cover the expenses of books and course on the understanding that "If you're man enough to enter a profession, then you're clearly not woman enough to require a wedding or a dowry". And so her formal education began. The next seven years were life-changing for Belladonna. She studied hard, both day and night, fascinated with each different aspect of her training. The time fairly flew by, until the time came for her to be named a full Doctor in 1891. While Belladonna changed greatly over that time, for her father, time seemed to stand still. He had continued to treat Belladonna as his nurse during any time she spent in the House residence, although as time went on she began to offer opinions and diagnoses of her own. Her education complete, she found herself at a loss as to what to do next. Setting up private practice would be almost impossible, with a combination of the current social attitude, and lack of funds against her, so she fell back into what she knew best, continuing to act her father's nurse, albeit with greatly improved understanding. Her father clearly wasn’t the type to conform to social standards and if it hadn’t been for his medical genius he would have been cast out of polite society entirely! Even so people only tended to visit him for the incurable, unusual and unsociable problems of the medical world, he became the last resort for the desperate patient. That is how one night in September 1891 a certain Belinda Huntingdon-Jjones local débutante came to be in his care. :“Miss Huntingdon-Jjones had been found, lying unconscious in the damp grass after being abducted one night and had fallen ill. All manner of Doctors had been called but none could fathom the mystery of her anaemia. Eventually (as is often the case when all else fails) she was brought to My Father's practice on Harley St. My father is not one for the mundane and I often find myself taking his stead if a case doesn’t stimulate his interest enough, this was not the case here! The young lady in question was extraordinarily photosensitive, off her food, constantly thirsty, anaemic… the list of symptoms was most singular! I tended to her day and night, as father worked on his considered diagnostic methods in the case, but just as her symptoms worsened, so did father's frustration. One Autumn evening our patient was being visited by her fiancé Sir Robert Holmes, he had just stepped out for a breath of air when things started to go awry. Our patient started to gasp for each and every breath, her body tensed and quivering; eyes rolling back into her head. We rushed to aid her but it became apparent that despite our best efforts we had lost the battle to save Miss Huntingdon-Jjones. My father was just calling the time of her death for me to record when I heard his agonised scream, the cadaver of Miss Huntingdon-Jjones had grasped my father around the leg and was tearing into him with inhuman appetite and strength! I screamed and ran to free him, her grip was vice tight and as my father was growing pale, and I was growing desperate, I took up the bust of Hippocrates from father's desk and struck her till she released him. I confess things got confusing and I lost track of the time in tending to fathers wounds. I do recall the sound of breaking glass and the voice of a strange man ... And then all hell broke loose! The stranger and the animate cadaver of Miss Huntingdon-Jjones tore the room apart in a fury filled fight the like of which I had never seen. More than once she picked the stranger up and threw him about the room as if he were merely a rag doll. The battle ended when the strange figure dove at the creature, crashing her through the one remaining intact window in the room. Sir Robert requested we keep the condition of his beloved at the last a secret, we too thought this best. Yet I confess that night will haunt me for many years to come.” From that day forward Belladonna’s hunger for research redoubled, and every free moment was spent reading. The stranger returned and introduced himself as a certain Mr Van Helsing and made good on the expense the nights activities had caused. The House Practice continued much as it had, for a while, then in the new year Mr Van Helsing returned. It seemed that he had a great number of associates that suffered from numerous and varied malaises. For the most part Dr. House was uninterested, except in the most singular of cases. It seemed, however, that it was not Dr. House that Van Helsing truly wished to converse with – rather Belladonna in his stead. Stitching wounds, sucking curious poisons and treating bruises and broken bones was one thing, but when Van Helsing invited her to visit an 'out patient' at an asylum her eyes were truly opened to a 'new science'. He introduced her to patients that her father would have found most interesting, but in Van Helsing's own words “must never become aware of”. Men with apparently mutated musculature; curious bony growths like horns; or tough, scaly patches of skin. She treated them all, and as an aside learnt some of the methods of healing the poor men's minds from the more caring doctors at the asylum. Her asylum visits became more and more frequent until, in early March she received a curious letter ... The Medical Journal of Miss Belladonna House